


Heaven-Sent Affliction

by ethereousdelirious



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Caretaking, Crying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Fluff without Plot, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Sick Character, Sickfic, Tenderness, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, fjord is just pining so hard someone please help him, i am TENDER and FERAL
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-12
Updated: 2019-10-12
Packaged: 2020-12-09 16:15:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20997680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ethereousdelirious/pseuds/ethereousdelirious
Summary: The Mighty Nein have plans to meet up after spending a day off in Rosohna. When Fjord learns that Caduceus went home sick, he ditches Beau and Jester to go look after him.Caduceus, sick and lonely, finds himself feeling much better once Fjord arrives.(Fluff, fluff, FLUFF)





	Heaven-Sent Affliction

**Author's Note:**

> I'm always so nervous about writing for a fandom for the first time AAAHHH. Buuuut I like FjorClay so much that I'm willing to take the plunge.  
I always see Caduceus taking caretaker roles in fic, so I wanted to write something where he's the one who needs looking after.

Fjord almost missed Jester and Beau entirely, blinking in surprise when he nearly walked into the pair of them. He had been looking above the crowd for Caduceus' bright pink hair.

"Hi, you two," Fjord said, stepping off to the side so the denizens of Rosohna could more easily move around them. "Where's 'Duceus?"

"Oh, we dropped him off at the Xhorhaus," Beau said. "He wasn't feeling too good."

"Yeah, he was, like,  _ really _ quiet and his ears were like," Jester pressed her palms flat against her head beside her horns, "folded way back. So we asked him and he said he didn't feel good so we took him home."

"We told him to take your bed," Beau added.

"You just left him there alone?" Ford asked.

"Well, we were gonna stay!" Jester puffed up, defensive. "We asked and he said it was okay and that we shouldn't miss out on a day off just 'cause he's sick. And he said he was just gonna sleep,  _ anyway _ !"

"Alright, alright." Fjord out up his hands in a gesture of surrender. "I was just asking." He shifted his weight and probed at one of his fledgling tusks with his tongue. "I'm, ah.... I think I might go check on him."

"And skip lunch with us?" Jester asked.

Fjord held his breath for a moment and tried his damndest to stifle the blush crawling up his neck. "You know me, I worry." He looked at Beau, imploring. "Gotta keep my crew shipshape."

"Yeah," she said, eyeing him with something akin to suspicion. Fjord suddenly found himself unable to meet her eye. "Go check on him. We'll tell Caleb and Nott what's up."

"If they ever show up," Jester grumbled, though there wasn't malice in her tone. "Maybe they're going to ditch us too."

"I'll see you in a bit," Fjord said before he could get sucked back into the conversation, and took off for the Xhorhaus at a pace much too fast to be mistaken for casual.

He reached the house in record time and came in as quietly as he could in case Caduceus was asleep, creeping up the stairs at an agonizing pace.

* * *

The sheets smelled like Fjord. Caduceus pulled them tight to his chest as he wrapped his arms around himself, trying to stave off the waves of violent shivers that had started sometime after Beau and Jester had left. He hadn't wanted to take Fjord's bed but he was far too tired to argue when Jester insisted he sleep inside and Beau suggested he take Fjord's bed (instead of Yasha's).

The Xhorhaus was agonizingly quiet with no else in it. Ordinarily, Caduceus didn't mind being alone with his thoughts, found it calming. Today, the silence was painful. He felt  _ terrible _ . His head pounded and his throat burned. Even just sitting up in Fjord's bed made his back ache. Worse still, there was no one to talk to. When he was ill at home, he usually had at least one family member to perch on the edge of his bed and keep him company, to sing him back to him sleep or rouse him from feverish nightmares.

A few hot tears pricked at the corners of Caduceus' eyes and slipped down his cheeks. He wiped them away, but the floodgates were open. Besieged by fever and loneliness, Caduceus bowed his head and began to sob. If he was lucky, he would wear himself out and fall asleep.

* * *

Fjord hesitated in the doorway to his bedroom. Most of Caduceus' face was hidden behind a curtain of pink hair, but it was still painfully obvious that he was crying.

"Deuce?" Fjord said after a pause that passed like an eternity.

Caduceus looked up at him, wiping tears away even as more fell to replace them. "Hi, Fjord." He sniffled and wiped his eyes again, for all the good it did.

"You okay?"

"I w-will be."

Fjord's heart melted. Even when sick and clearly upset, Caduceus was still trying to be positive. "Can I touch you?"

"Yeah."

Fjord crossed the room and sat down next to Caduceus, placing his hands on Caduceus' shoulders. "You're burning up. Why don't you lie down? Poor thing." The last sentence was an afterthought that he hadn’t meant to say out loud, but it slipped out just the same. Seeing Caduceus so miserable, Fjord just couldn’t help but voice his sympathy.

Caduceus sniffled and nodded. He let Fjord help him scoot down, his legs tucked up so they didn't hang off the bottom of the bed. He sighed shakily when Fjord brushed a few wayward strands of hair out of his face.

"Tell me what's wrong?" Fjord asked, continuing to stroke Caduceus' forehead. "Or do you just feel really sick?"

"Sick and lonely," Caduceus answered. Fjord couldn't help but wince at the thick congestion in his voice. He closed his eyes. "I feel better now that you're here."

Fjord smiled despite himself. "I'm sorry you're so sick."

"It happens." Caduceus turned his head to the side and sneezed violently. He winced, flicking his ears in a gesture of annoyance. "Ow. Mm. That didn't f-feel--" He sneezed again. "That didn't feel good." He paused for a moment, then his expression turned sheepish. "I'll wash your sheets when I feel better."

"Don't worry about that right now," Fjord said. He started stroking Caduceus' hair again. Warmth flooded his chest when he saw Caduceus relax a little, even smile a bit, at the touch. "Is there anything I can do to help you feel better?"

"Just this," Caduceus answered, closing his eyes again. "This is nice."

Even with his lips chapped, his face flushed with fever, the skin around his nose pink and irritated, Fjord could swear Caduceus never looked so beautiful.

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from "Orestes" AKA that play that spawned this exchange:  
Pylades: I'll take care of you.  
Orestes: It's rotten work.  
Pylades: Not to me. Not if it's you.
> 
> I haven't read the play yet (emphasis on YET), but I scanned it looking for a fic titles and found the perfect one in literally the first paragraph, so lucky me.
> 
> Anyway, hope you liked the fic! Feel free to let me know if you catch any typos.


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